Made his mark on 'Easy Rider'

The Baltimore Sun

Laszlo Kovacs, the Hungarian-born cinematographer who found international fame after treating the American landscape as a character in the landmark 1969 movie Easy Rider, has died. He was 74.

Mr. Kovacs, a Budapest film student who came to the United States as a political refugee in 1957, died in his sleep Sunday at his Beverly Hills, Calif., home.

His work on Paper Moon was considered a masterpiece of black-and-white photography. In a career that spanned five decades and more than 70 feature films, he also put his stamp on Five Easy Pieces and Shampoo.

"I think he's one of the great cameramen of the New Hollywood era," said director Peter Bogdanovich, who worked with Mr. Kovacs on six films.

"Many, if not most, American films were studio-bound," said James Chressanthis, a fellow member of the American Society of Cinematographers. "Laszlo's success was in taking movies out of the studio and on the road and into real situations."

In 2002, Mr. Kovacs received the American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award.

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